who is the most influential person in your life and why? ( Archived) (42)

who had the most affect on your life?


mine is my father...... 2 reasons.

1 acceptance.... had a great drive in life to be somthing great so that he would approve of me.

2 to never be like him..... I make it a point to be very suportive of my kids decisons and let them know that i love them no matter what they are or are not in life.

I wrote this in a blog on another site a while back...(sorry for the length)

Who Is The Most Influential Person In My Life?

I have lived a relatively short life. When I slowly turn my gaze to the path that has been, I am forced to squint at a hazy jumble of experiences and individuals long gone. I am conscious of these elemets that have made me. To a degree, I know I am a child of that soup left behind me. To try annd measure to what extent certain elements have defined me would be an irrelevant and impossible assessment. I am a cumilative product, and being such, separating influence from influence cannot be done. However, in that always growing, ever-present soup, I see someone who has played a vital role in shaping me.

This person is someone who my eyes only know by fading pictures hanging against fading wall paper of a fading house. I ave heard his voice only through the voices f others. Sincere, affectionate mediums, yet, they can never really become what they desire. I have never talked to this individual; I have only heard talk OF him. I have never known this individual; Ihave only known OF him. This individual, is a person I have never met.

This person is my grandpa. He died when my mom was young. I never met him. I was born a decade or two too late. I really can't recall the day I noticed he was missing, he just kind of always was. I remember when I was very young, I told my mom that one night I talked to him. I can't remember what I said, or what he said. All I can remember is that I THOUGHT I talked with him. Who knows if I really did. I might have. I might not have. But regardless, I believed I talked with him.

I did not know it then, but on some level, I was trying to relate to him--whether he was present or not. Having a conversation with him, or at least perceiving such, allowed me to try and foster a connection with someone that I was physically unconnected with. Looking back on my conversation, I see myself as a child, desparately trying to connect with someone of utmost importance. I was trying to connect with someone who was a seemingly infinite distance away from me. I reached for a place so distant that connection seemed impossible. I was met with a gap so wide no bridge could cross it. I was shouting at a wall so thick, it seemed no voice can break through it. But despite all this, I still tried to connect.

And to a point, I did connect. My grandpa was transformed from a distant, abstract someTHING, to an immediate, real, someBODY. I was able to throw a tether across that vast crevasse filled with void. I tugged the teher-and someone might have tugged it back.

Who was tugging back-me or him-is completely irrelevent. The fact is that on some level there was a relationship. Whether it was a relationship existing within some transcendent world, or existing within my own mind, the fact remains the same, I had a relationship ith him. I was connected with him.

So what did my grandpa teach me? He taught me that the impenetrable walls that exist between two people are far from impenetrable. There is no greater wall that that which exists between life and death, and we were able to break through it. He taught me that between two people, the infinite void is not infinite. It is not a void. All one has to do is cast a tether into that illusionary nothingness, and it will undoubtedly find ground.

He taught me that in a disconnected world, we are all yearning to connect.

That's how my Grandpa influenced me.

And I love him for it.

Goose - that was amazing.

Split between my parents...

From my mother, a desire to write.

From my father, the desire to work with my hands.

From both of them, the influence I needed to at least try and be a decent human being.

well said. very moving post makes you think about life.

Makes me cry everytime I reread it...

I see that most of the guys have put their dads have been but I only knew my dad for a short time and then I had step dads.The person that is the most influential in my life is my mom.She has made it through raising 10 boys off and on through out the yrs.She has taught most of us the way to treat women and how to be a good men.She always is there for us no matter what it is about when we need someone to talk to.I can say that most of the things I have learned I have been taught by my mom.She is the one person I have always looked up too and is my hero also.

You gave tw reasons, so I give two persons.

My Mom and Dad. They made love to make me and gave love to grow me.....

I guess that would be my uncle. He catches the influensia every year. He old I guess thats why! .......crazy questions you people ask sometimes.